US Trade Deficit Has Doubled in a Year

The US trade deficit soared to a record $140.5 billion in March as consumers and businesses alike tried to get ahead of President Trump's latest and most sweeping tariffs—with federal data showing an enormous stockpiling of pharmaceutical products. The deficit—which measures the gap between the value of goods and services the US sells abroad against what it buys—has roughly doubled over the last year, the AP reports. In March 2024, Commerce Department records show, that gap was just under $68.6 billion.

• According to federal data released on Tuesday, US exports for goods and services totaled about $278.5 billion in March, while imports climbed to nearly $419 billion. That's up $500 million and $17.8 billion, respectively, from February trade.

• Consumer goods led the imports surge—increasing by $22.5 billion in March. And pharma products in particular climbed $20.9 billion, the US Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis noted, signaling that drugmakers sought to get ahead of Trump's threats to slap tariffs on the sector.
• "While we had known consumer goods accounted for the bulk of March's rise, we can now see pharmaceutical products were $20 billion higher—almost all of which were imported from Ireland," analysts at Oxford Economics wrote in a Tuesday research note. "Uncertainty remains high, and broader signs of front-loading may be visible in coming months."
• Imports of "capital goods," like computers, as well as automotive parts and cars, also increased in March. But industrial supplies and materials, such as metal and crude oil coming into the US, fell—notably as steel and aluminum tariffs and other levies impacting energy took effect. And service-based imports like travel also decreased.

• Overall, imports are flooding into the US for products that have—or are feared to soon be—caught in the crosshairs of the ongoing trade wars. Trump has threatened and imposed a series of steep tariffs in recent months.
• March's trade deficit surpasses the last monthly record of $130.7 billion reported in January—also amid tariff uncertainty after Trump took office, marking a more than $32 billion jump from December.
• The recent surge in imports reflects efforts by companies across the country to bring in foreign goods before more duties kicked in. New orders for manufactured durable goods, for example, jumped 9.2% to $315.7 billion in March, Census Bureau data released last month shows.

(More trade deficit stories.)